14-year old child pornographers? Sexting lawsuits get serious

If a 14-year old boy coerces a 14-year old girl into making a sex video on a …

If a middle-aged man meets a 14-year-old girl, coerces her to film a 10-second clip of herself masturbating, then intentionally releases that clip on the Internet, the man could clearly be charged under US federal law against the “sexual exploitation of children.” But what happens when the “man” is a 14-year-old boy who the 14-year old girl likes? And what if the "coercion" to make the film is the boy's threat not to befriend the girl in their new high school without the video?

An ongoing federal court case in Kentucky is currently trying to answer some of the thorniest questions surrounding "sexting," the practice of sending sexually explicit photographs or videos to friends or lovers. Rules designed to stop predatory adults from taking advantage of children become murkier when both parties involved in sexting are kids; in fact, no federal precedent exists for these kinds of sexting suits against minors.

A new ruling in the Kentucky case will allow that lawsuit to move forward, however, with the judge deciding that even 14-year olds can be child pornographers.

The opposite of "friendship"

The case began late in 2005, when an eighth grade girl at the Montessori Middle School of Kentucky was suffering from anorexia and had to relocate to a treatment center in Arizona. After two months at the Remuda Ranch facility there, she returned to Kentucky to finish the school year.

Soon after she came back, she developed a crush on a boy; the two would attend the same Lexington Catholic High School in the fall of 2006 as freshmen. According to the complaint, the boy soon “made several telephone calls to the Plaintiff telling her that he wanted her to create a video with her telephone showing herself pleasuring herself, a video which Defendant [name redacted] said he would use when he masturbated."

The girl at first refused, but the boy allegedly told her that "he would not be her friend at Lexington Catholic High School" without the video.

This continued for some time, with the boy allegedly sending text messages to the girl in June 2006 in which he promised to “keep the sexually explicit video secret.” The girl gave in. According to the complaint, she was “finally coerced, enticed, and persuaded” to produce an 8 to 10 second video clip of herself masturbating, which she sent to the boy using her cell phone.

Fast-forward to September, when both the boy and the girl entered ninth grade at Lexington Catholic. Only a few weeks into the school year, the boy was allegedly convinced by one of his friends to transfer the cell phone video to his computer. From there, it was a small step to uploading the short clip onto the Internet, with predictable results. (An alleged attempt to upload the clip to YouTube, where it might have received even wider dissemination, was “unsuccessful because of the sexually explicit nature of the content.”)

The video was “received by students and was in many cases uploaded by Lexington Catholic High School students to their iPods in order to share the sexually explicit video with as many students at Lexington Catholic high school as possible,” said the complaint. Students at three other local high schools allegedly viewed the clip as well, and students began calling the girl in the video "a whore, 'nasty Nat,' and the 'porn queen'."

The girl's mother immediately got involved, calling the boy in question and allegedly getting him to admit that he had distributed the video. The mother then went to the police, told her story, and convinced a detective to investigate. Nothing came of the investigation, because the detective eventually told the mother that the girl "could be seen as having been as guilty as the Defendants" for producing and distributing child pornography.

The girl's family was harassed, having their home vandalized and receiving numerous prank phone calls, for three years after the release of the clip. The girl claims to have been “subjected to a daily routine of harassment” at school and eventually suffered from “depression, anxiety, mental anguish, embarrassment, and extreme stress.” She was eventually advised, for her own mental and physical well-being, to finish high school elsewhere.

She did so, eventually relocating out of state to a private school in order to finish her education, at a cost of thousands of dollars to her parents.

The tale, as laid out in the complaint, is undeniably horrific, even more so when one considers the girl's existing psychological vulnerability. But did someone break the law? And if so, what law was it?

The worst part about this case is the harrassment the girl's family has been subjected to (was the boy and his family also subjects of harrassment? I can't imagine they've been completely harrasment free). Unfortunately, it's not possible to conclusively finger the people doing the harrassing but the boy's family shouldn't be made to pay for that. Both the girl and the boy were equally to blame for the what lead to the harrassment and 'low self-esteem' or whatnot due to the girl's anorexia doesn't absolve her of her share of he blame.

The boy does need to be punished though for actions that he had to know would cause harm to the girl - sharing the video with his friends and worse, uploading it to the Net. Suspension from school and a community service sentence sound more reasonable than a multi-thousand dollar lawsuit.

I can't imagine that the boy was harassed. He's a high school male that got a video of a girl masturbating. He's a hero, to his age group.

I'm not sure if the family should be force to pay any money, but the boy needs to be hella punished. Seriously.

Also, what is it with these young girls sending naked shots of themselves so easily. I'm a grown ass man and I can't get pics like that sent to me. I have to actually go to their house and take their clothes off. So much work.

it's not possible to conclusively finger the people doing the harrassing

Best unintentional pun I read all day

On a side note, the kid is a fucking douche bag.... The girl should know better, 14 or not, but kids are just total assholes these days. I thought we had some bad people in gen x, but kids now are far, far worse.

These cases do threaten to become difficult; the real worries are around some of the earlier cases that have been reported here at Ars. Sure, in this case the boyfriend actively solicited the video, and at least in a high-school context coerced the girl to send it, and then distributed it widely. But what about when one party sends an unsolicited picture or video to another, and it stays on their personal cell phones/PCs, but then someone happens to see it?

If both parties are over 18, the answer is "absolutely nothing." They're consenting adults, and they're allowed to share "adult" material with each other. But what if they're both minors? Are they both guilty of producing and/or possessing child pornography? What if the boyfriend is 18 and the girlfriend is not? What if the girlfriend is 18 and the boyfriend is not (because we all know there's a double standard)? What's so magical about that particular birthday? I can tell you that the day after I turned 18, I didn't feel any more mature than the day before, other than the fact I had to go sign my Selective Service card.

I can't imagine that the boy was harassed. He's a high school male that got a video of a girl masturbating. He's a hero, to his age group.

To males in his age group. I was thinking that his family and him may have gotten some blowback from other parents and the girls and teachers in his school. That shouldn't free the boy from being punished though.

kleinma wrote:

I thought we had some bad people in gen x, but kids now are far, far worse.

Somehow, I think we'd have done the same thing if we had videophones back then.

I'm not sure if the family should be force to pay any money, but the boy needs to be hella punished. Seriously.

Why? Why punish the boy and not the girl (especially since we're talking about making him register as a sex offender and all that entails with that awful tag hanging over your head for the rest of your life)? If she had been under threat of violence, suffered actual violence, or was truly coerced that would be one thing. Rather, she voluntarily sent the images to the boy. And I'm feeling she did so without any coercion as she claimed with the whole friend thing, in order to try and save some face from mommy and daddy (you know when a teen is lying, when they open their mouths).

The end outcome should be to let the parents deal with their kids, and allow the public shame of, 'stupid is as stupid does' be the real punishment.

As usual, kids do really horrible things to each other. Coming up with new laws regarding sexting is going to be the only really good answer. The punishment needs to fit the crime, it doesn't need to go way above and beyond it.

Man that boy should be grounded till eternity. But that's about it. He is 14 for christ's sake. What's so messy about it. 14 year old boys have been having sex with 14 year old girls for centuries now. And people (mostly the girls I would think) have been embarrassed by 14 year old boys since forever. Historically this was taken care of by the 17 year old brother of the girl with a baseball bat or by the father through a long session with the parents of the boy.

The only difference these days is that its much easier to distribute images like that. Which magnifies the embarrassement.

Why? Why punish the boy and not the girl (especially since we're talking about making him register as a sex offender and all that entails

? The story doesn't mention this. The only mention of being registered as a sex offender was in a different case.

A $150,000 settlement is still inane. And this case all boils down to this poor innocent girl. Most girls mature mentally faster than boys. Female bullys can also be a damn sight meaner and more vicious than boys.

I also remember clubbing in my 20's and how I had to learn to spot fake ID's because precious little 15 and 16 year old girls would use them to enter said clubs and try to hook up with us college guys. I really don't believe this girl is at all as innocent as claimed, and thus no monetary award should be issued.

I'm not sure if the family should be force to pay any money, but the boy needs to be hella punished. Seriously.

Why? Why punish the boy and not the girl (especially since we're talking about making him register as a sex offender and all that entails with that awful tag hanging over your head for the rest of your life)? If she had been under threat of violence, suffered actual violence, or was truly coerced that would be one thing. Rather, she voluntarily sent the images to the boy. And I'm feeling she did so without any coercion as she claimed with the whole friend thing, in order to try and save some face from mommy and daddy (you know when a teen is lying, when they open their mouths).

The end outcome should be to let the parents deal with their kids, and allow the public shame of, 'stupid is as stupid does' be the real punishment.

Boys always get the short end of the stick when it comes to legal issues.

Having worked with kids professionally, and having be a psychiatric social worker, I can see how really stupid it is to treat kids this way.

That being said, the kid is a predator. He took advantage of a vulnerable girl who has obvious issues with self-image and a desperate need for acceptance. And he threatened to withhold that acceptance and friendship if she didn't comply. The girl is guilty of trusting the boy to be truthful. And he actually tried to a degree, but in the end he gave in and gave it to someone else, and it blew up from there.

It's wrong to say they are equally guilty. They are not.

Of course those conclusions are based on the facts at hand. And how reliable those facts are. But the main thrust of the story is to make a very good point. This is a murky area, and the political system we live in now only wants simplistic answers to complex problems. And there's no way people are going to get anything but hurt from that inexcusably lazy attitude.

My initial reaction was that this lawsuit can't possibly be appropriate. But after reading the whole article, it seems as though (1) this is following the growing consensus that making or possessing such a video isn't child porn, (2) the real issue is disseminating the video, which actually is a potentially valid thing to call a crime, (3) the case will hinge on a jury finding of whether she was legitimately complicit in making the video, which seems like a valid test.

From the information available, a jury is likely to find that she is responsible for making the video, at least in part. That will get the rest of the case tossed based on the judge's ruling, which seems like a correct finding of law, at least to me.

More generally, it seems like kids distributing porn of their peers should be a crime, but that child pornography, as currently understood, shouldn't be the right crime. This sounds like an issue Congress should take up.

Having worked with kids professionally, and having be a psychiatric social worker, I can see how really stupid it is to treat kids this way.

That being said, the kid is a predator. He took advantage of a vulnerable girl who has obvious issues with self-image and a desperate need for acceptance. And he threatened to withhold that acceptance and friendship if she didn't comply. The girl is guilty of trusting the boy to be truthful. And he actually tried to a degree, but in the end he gave in and gave it to someone else, and it blew up from there.

It's wrong to say they are equally guilty. They are not.

Of course those conclusions are based on the facts at hand. And how reliable those facts are. But the main thrust of the story is to make a very good point. This is a murky area, and the political system we live in now only wants simplistic answers to complex problems. And there's no way people are going to get anything but hurt from that inexcusably lazy attitude.

Riiighht. Because she's the only girl in the US with body issues. And surely, this boy was under no peer pressure either. :\

After all, it's not like teens today are completely in the dark about famous sex tapes like Pamela Anderson or Paris Hilton (nor garbage like the more recent Tiger Woods mistress nonsense), and how they rocketed those folks to both infamy and fame.

Labeling him a predator is a rather bold claim. What was predatory? Her claim that he wouldn't be her friend if she didn't pose nude and send him the pics? A claim that's not remotely been corroborated. But yes, once again, let's just blame the man (in this case an immature 14 year old boy prone to the same stupid decisions as every other 14 year old boy) while giving the precious girl a pass. After all, girls never use peer pressure, act predatory themselves, or bully others (that's all just myth and fabrication). :\

He's a predator? I wish the hand wringing masses could live a day as a hormone ravaged teenage boy and be deprived of their mature developed opinions. He's normal, doing what comes naturally, just like she did. Its we that are causing the real damage in most of these cases, you can't apply your high minded morals to kids, which is why we don't let them run the world. They are kids, kids are generally stupid, that's why we send them to school. Stop trying to fight millions of years of biological imperitives with your modern sensabilities. The families should handle this. If you want to consider the silliness of this whole issue, take a look online for what we let girls do on their 18th birthday, on camera, for money. The day before, its a crime, moral outrage, and heads need to roll. Then a hand on a clock moves, and the most depraved things are fine. We need to take a long hard pause and ensure out laws don't do more damage than the "crimes" they try to prevent. We also need to give more respect for humanities ability to adapt and overcome, we aren't made of sugar, stop trying to coddle and infantilize everyone.

In most of the European countries it wouldn't even be a problem as the age of consent is 14-15 year...

Urm, no. We also have laws against child pornography.

One anecdote, until recently in some cantons in Switzerland, 16 and 17 year olds were allowed to work as prostitutes.

But your country isn't crippled by Puritanical sexual mores. That's the only reason the distribution was so traumatic to the girl. Because in this country, sex is an elemental evil (disregard all advertising - money is money, amirite?). In your country, she probably wouldn't have suffered any more ridicule than if she'd shown up to school with a bad hair cut. Yes, she probably would have been teased, and yes, that can be traumatic to fragile children, but it wouldn't have been life-altering, as this case was.

As a father, this case is troubling to me. Well let me rephrase, the nature of the case is bothersome.

I know when we were that age, we wanted to see the female body, whether she was our age or not. If I'd had a camera (and a girl willing to pose) I would have taken the picture. Yet I can attest that I would never have thought of it as child pornography. However, that is exactly what it is, regardless of the age of the boy that got her to do so.

My daughter is close to this age bracket. Pictures of body parts is certainly one of many things that I worry about with her. Not that I think she'd do it to be that kind of girl, but more out of wanting a boy to like her. That kind of vulnerability is easy to exploit. Kids are the cruelest creatures in the world.

Both parties need to be punished in some way. The girl needs to realize the severity of sending nude videos/photos at her age and the boy needs to realize that kind of coercion is wrong. And posting it on the internet is very wrong to do. (Even if it something we all wanted to do or get at that age. Natural or not, it can lead to larger problems.)

I wish I could say I'm surprised, but it's what this age has brought us.

This! a thousand times. A judge shouldn't even come near that case. Families should handle it, at most the school should be involved. But a judge? How idiotic is that. Yeah everybody will profit from this case being dragged through a court and broadcast on national media.

If there isn't a legitimate legal one already, time to SET a precedent and make an example out of this kid. The girl's already been punished appropriately.

Actions have consequences and something this serious should be dealt with as harshly as the law / court allows. Then they should plaster the story on every newspaper and cable channel they can find as an alert to dumbass parents who don't know how to strike a balance between being "cool" (see also: enabling pushovers) and instilling solid values in their kids, including worth ethic, self-respect, respect for others, etc. No self-respecting kid in the world would do this. Parental failure once again, but he's old enough to take some harsh consequences, be it a year at juvy or whatever. He's in high school, not an 8 year old.

I'm glad those kids were going to a good Catholic high school. Those schools do such a good job of instilling solid Catholic values in the students.

If they are doing that sort of thing in the Catholic high schools what are they doing in public? ...

I went to 3 years of catholic high school before leaving and finishing in public school. The kids are WAY, WAY worse in catholic school. Even if the same type of behavior was happening in both places, it was way more public and talked about in the catholic school. Smoking in bathrooms, smoking weed on field trip buses, fights, cheating, sex in school. hell 2 of my teachers in catholic school went to jail for having sex with multiple students, while the priest who ran the school went to jail for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars. One thing you gotta remember about the catholics, they feel they can be as bad as they want so long as they ask for forgiveness before they die and say a few prayers....

Sexting being treated as a crime, and cyber-bullying being illegal are two of the stupidest things I have ever seen. What next? Assault charges for playground fights. Disorderly conduct for throwing food in the lunch room. Resisting arrest when they throw a temper tantrum..

Sh*t happens. Lets try not to get the police involved unless its really important.

I definitely disagree that the fault is equal. The girl was preyed upon and pressured into doing something that was (let's face it) fun for her, and he turned around and distributed the video. I doubt he didn't intend to do that from the start. This kid's a real piece of crap. Taking a girl's friendship and betraying it is bad enough, but she even sent him a private video. If he were a decent human being, he would have watched it a couple times, and then deleted it. Or at least kept it safe, but due to the volatile nature of teenage relationships, it would be too tempting to use as blackmail if the relationship went south. If his intentions were in any way honorable, he would have deleted the video.

I'm not really seeing a fault for the girl, except in theory. She sent a lewd video (albeit under pressure) to a lover, or potential lover. She didn't distribute anything. She just sent one copy to the boy. He distributed it.

As for what should be done... it's the same with any reasonable law. The wrongs should be made right. The boy (and his family?) should be responsible for expenses the girl (and her family) incurred as a result of his actions. Including going to a private school, including damage done to her family's property, and including emotional suffering as a result of the harassment. Actions have consequences. I'm not even talking about, like, the RIAA lawsuits, where they magnify the damages by a number pulled out of the air. Just the actual damages.

And they should both lose access to photo and video recording and transmitting equipment of any kind until they're 18. That means cell phones without cameras, or some kind of locked down smartphone that can't use its camera (or physically render the camera useless -- lightly tap a nail into the lens with a hammer should do the trick and shouldn't damage the rest of it). That means no laptops or netbooks (webcam). Of course there are ways around it, but that's anything.

Oh, and as for the deflection about the Catholic school, it doesn't matter if they weren't enrolled yet. They're still Catholics. You don't go to a Catholic school if you aren't a Catholic to start out with. At least I'm pretty sure you don't. So any comments about Catholics and morals definitely apply, as hard as that may be for any Catholics in this topic. No disrespect, but it's definitely fair game.

If there isn't a legitimate legal one already, time to SET a precedent and make an example out of this kid. The girl's already been punished appropriately.

Actions have consequences and something this serious should be dealt with as harshly as the law / court allows. Then they should plaster the story on every newspaper and cable channel they can find as an alert to dumbass parents who don't know how to strike a balance between being "cool" (see also: enabling pushovers) and instilling solid values in their kids, including worth ethic, self-respect, respect for others, etc. No self-respecting kid in the world would do this. Parental failure once again, but he's old enough to take some harsh consequences, be it a year at juvy or whatever. He's in high school, not an 8 year old.

Nothing serious happened. A hairless monkey shamed herself at the behest of a typical male hairless monkey of that age. Why are we demonizing normal behavior? People used to marry at 12. The damage is coming from prudes and lawyers. I'm fine with parental failure, but you seem pretty keen to hammer someone over an 8 second clip of something 50% of the population see on a daily basis. The lessons have already been learned by both parties. So yes, set residence, to keep the government out of Americas bedrooms.

Well, this kid sounds like a bit of a dick. But then, when I was 14, I didn't know many boys that wouldn't have asked for such a video, and if they thought threatening "not to be your best friend" would help, they probably would have. Such a threat is not a threat. It's a promise of payment (to be your friend).

The girl obviously had full choice whether or not she wanted to make the video. Making friends was important enough to her that she finally did it. I believe this is called "peer pressure" and it is not usually defined as coercion. If it's true she had a crush on the kid, then she was just doing what she had to for his approval. Again, that's not automatically coercion because he made it clear exactly what it would take for that approval.

The posting to the internet qualifies as distribution of child porn, and the only question is whether children can be guilty of that crime. Well, children can be found guilty of crimes against each other, so maybe it's not unreasonable. On the other hand, if a child is too young to be responsible enough to decide to make porn, isn't the same child too young to be charged with making or distributing porn? I would say yes, they are too young to be charged. However, the kid should probably be expelled and slapped.

Sexting being treated as a crime, and cyber-bullying being illegal are two of the stupidest things I have ever seen. What next? Assault charges for playground fights. Disorderly conduct for throwing food in the lunch room. Resisting arrest when they throw a temper tantrum..

Sh*t happens. Lets try not to get the police involved unless its really important.

Sexting shouldn't be labeled as a crime, that I agree with. Nude photos/videos of 14 year old kids is a problem. Cyber-bullying (or bullying of any kind) is a problem and should be dealt with. Should the Judicial system or Police get involved? Depends on the severity of the problem. Considering the end result of dozens or hundreds of kids seeing the video, the video going "viral" amongst their peers, the harrassment of the girl and family, that's definately worth bringing in the Police. Bullying can be very traumatic and very painful. Not just emotionally but physically as well. Harrassment is harrassment.

Just because some people chalk it up as a part of life or growing up, doesn't make it ok. Bullying should never be tolerated. Period.